Inside the Phillies with MLB.com beat writer Todd Zolecki

Ibanez’s Big Month

So yesterday I tweeted Raul Ibanez leads Major League Baseball with 25 RBIs in 21 games from July 5-31.

Just an interesting stat, nothing more.

Just mentioned it because he’s been pretty productive over the last few weeks.

But then I got a reply from somebody saying, “Are we using RBIs to prove worth? Is this 1972?”

Really, dude? I’m not saying Ibanez is the world’s greatest leftfielder. I’m not saying he should be National League MVP. I’m only saying, “Hey, Ibanez has knocked in a lot of runs this month. In fact, he’s knocked in more runs than anybody else in baseball. I think Phillies fans might find that interesting.”

That’s it.

But while I’m thinking about it, here are a few more stats for Ibanez from July 5-31:

His .600 slugging percentage is tied for 10th in baseball.

His six go-ahead RBIs are tied for fifth.

His five game-winning RBIs are tied for first.

His .944 OPS is 22nd out of 166 players.

Ibanez has hit .247 with 21 doubles, one triple, 16 homers, 59 RBIs, a .293 on-base percentage and a .434 slugging percentage this season. His .728 OPS ranks 13th out of 17 qualifying leftfielders in baseball. But Ibanez has hit .277 with 19 doubles, one triple, 15 homers, 49 RBIs, a .312 on-base percentage and a .505 slugging percentage since his 0-for-35 slump ended in May. His .817 OPS in that span ranks 53rd out of 156 qualifying players and second among nine qualifying leftfielders.

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33 Comments

Kyle, with so much negative comments about Ibanez, he deserves to get credit where credit is do. After all, he played a major part in the Phillies win yesterday. He’s a great guy and he plays hard. He never gives up and never gives in. He works constantly on his game. I, for one, am thrilled for him having such a great month.

RBIs are so 1972? That dipstick can go suck an egg. It seems to me that the object of the game remains to score runs and this is achieved by men getting on base and subsequent hitters driving them home. So we want to laud the guy who gets on base and the guy who scores runs but not the guy who makes this happen? Go figure.

Ibanez’s days are numbered, but I’ve always liked him, a hard worker, and always pleasant in any interview. Hoping he continues to dig up some consistency and puts together a good run for the rest of the season. He’s a great Phillie.

I agree.. Raul has struggled at times and is a very streaky hitter! He is now 39 and maybe it took the old guy a little longer to heat up! Here in Phily, when the weather heats up, the bats heat up! This will probably be his last year in Philadelphia, but it’s nice to see him contributing in the clutch. He is very well liked here and my Dad’s favorite Philly on this team.

When he was slumping I kept saying, ” Yeah… that’s a great way to earn 16 million a year!” Just with a hint of sarcasm. But let’s ride Raul’s bat as long as we can and hope that in the end, he and this Phillies team has yet another World Series title!

He had an insane month. At times, he WAS the offense. As long as someone in that lineup keeps picking the team up, they will go far. Stop the hating! Geez, you act like this guy was WIlson Valdez or someone….

Todd’s e-mail buddy is obviously one of those stat-geeks who likes to analyze baseball with a calculator and stopwatch. Me, I like stats I can understand like runs scored, runs batted in, batting average, etc. I don’t need to find an interpreter to tell me what WAR is or how OPS is calculated. I like to use a stat I call SEE. If I can SEE that a player is good, I can tell that he’s good.

Ibanez has been good if not great since he’s been here. If RBIs are old-fashioned, then I guess I’m old fashioned. What I do know is that baseball people still make mistakes in evaluating players with all of their fancy numbers. I’ll continue to go by what I SEE.

The only cyberstat that is credible, IMO, is OPS because the other numbers like runs, RBI usually follow.
But ‘clutch’ stats don’t show up in cyberworld because those geeks think that clutch hitting doesn’t exist and is simply a result of the law of averages, which allows them to discount RBI as a viable statistic.

Ted Williams used to say that hitting was easy. You see the ball, you hit the ball. Same for the game. Get on base, get knocked in. All of the new stats may be very useful to those who don’t understand the game. TO me, I want to see OBP, runs, RBI, I will admit, however, that wins are a useless stat (though that is, of course the main object) annd WHiP is a great way to measure pitchers.
Ibanez won’t be back, but Raul will always remain in our hearts

Well then, I guess Mickey Mantle, Yaz, Frank Robinson, Ted Williams among others winning the triple crown isn’t that big a deal since they probably didn’t lead wOBA, f/xAVE, and whatever other crap there is out there. There’s a reason guys get paid to hit for average, hit homers, and drive runs in.

The problem with RBI is not that RBIs weren’t worth counting, but rather that people used to only pay attention to that and batting average. The problem with new stats is not that they aren’t worth keeping track of, but that OPS+ and WAR are also being looked at to the exclusion of everything else. Two thoughts, one is that the career leaders in OPS are guys like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Barry Bonds, and the same guys are in the RBI list (except for Hank Aaron who couldn’t get ball calls his first few years in the league which drove down his OPS). The second thought is this. RBIs actually show up on the score board. That’s how we decide who wins. OPS is a better stats in some ways, but if Jason Werth hits a triple with none on, and never scores, he has a high ops, but no rbi or run scored. If Ibanez grounds out deep to short with Utley on third and Chase scores, he has a zero ops, but an rbi. And that run actually shows up on the board.

How bad do the Phillies have to beat the Giants this time to show everyone that they’re clearly the better team. This time they’ll face Lee, Hamels, Worley and possibly Oswalt. And they’ll be facing a red hot Raul and the newest Phillie Hunter Pence.

read on the Nation blog a suggestion that JRoll move to 3B in 2013 (assuming we resing him) to let Galvis take over at SS. I think it’s an interesting idea, but most who have done this did so becasue their defense was suffering. With JRoll its his hitting that is fading. Comments?

You don’t have to explain your tweets or blogs to anyone and if an ignorant phan takes a shot at you, don’t waste your energy trying to defend your point. Those of us who love your articles and posts know where your coming from. Those others will never change their opinions of you or any of us who comment. Thanks for letting the ignorant know that the more they complain about Ibanez being on the teamthe dumber they look.

Sherry, Raul, as good as he’s been lately, was just as awful earlier in the season. We don’t ned him back. If we could have trusted Raul to hit and play a bit of D we could have put up with Brown’s inconsistency and misplays buy having SHane overplay towards him–what Maddox used to do with Bull when MrBride was in RF, and what shane used to do when Werth was in RF to help compensate for Raul. Problem is when you have 2 lousy OF at the corners. Next year our OF is Brown (LF) SHane (CF) Pence (RF) with Mayberry the 4th OF.

Brown only manifests as a ‘lousy’ outfielder in RF. He will be fine in LF, and will be a significant upgrade over Raul over time. I wouldn’t mind signing Raul as a bench player next year, but he’ll be 40 years old and I don’t want him as an everyday player at that point. Brown is going to be a very good player, one who already is showing some decent plate discipline. Get him out of RF and he will get even better, without that hanging over his head every day.
I hope they keep Mayberry but, if he keeps up what he has been doing recently, he could end up as a pretty good chip in an offseason trade. Say, for a young SS or a bullpen piece? Gotta think out of the box sometimes.

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